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Monthly Archives: February 2009

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Facing a sharp decline in the shooting of big-budget productions in Los Angeles, city officials are considering hiring a “film czar” to promote their interests with the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry.Daily News.

Just three major films – those with budgets more than $75 million – are scheduled to be shot in L.A. this year, city officials said.

When you’re a friend of the IBEW _ and its Measure B solar initiative _ they stand by you.
In addition to their support for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the IBEW Local 18 has poured more than $150,000 into the race for City Controller on behalf of Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who supports the solar measure and voted to place it on the ballot.
The union also spent nearly $25,000 in a mailer critical of Greuel’s main opponent, businessman Nick Patsaouras.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan announced Wednsday his endorsemetn of Adeena Bleich in the 5th Council District race next Tuesdy.
“Adeena is the right leader at the right time for Los Angeles,” Riordan said in a statement.
“Her vision of greater access and accountability is exactly what Los Angeles needs to help get back on track as a model, sustainable city.”

In an economy that has been figuratively exacting a pound of flesh from many, Melanie Burnett has been literally selling a part of herself to help pay her way through college. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Burnett, a kinesiology major at California State University, Northridge, earned $6,000 last semester by selling her eggs to a fertility clinic. She expects to receive a similar amount for another egg donation this spring.

“Economic times are hard now, but for me they were also hard last semester and the semester before. This is a good way where I am making money and not having to work a full-time job,” said Burnett, 21.

Foreclosures continued to pummel the San Fernando Valley housing market in January, driving down the median price to $352,000, its lowest level in nearly six years, according to two reports released Tuesday.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

The January figure is down 33 percent from the $525,000 median recorded just a year earlier for a previously owned house from Glendale to Calabasas, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.